I Don't Believe In Myself
by Dimitri A
Summary: Kaiba’s never been the good guy so when someone takes the one thing that matters he makes a deal with a God to get his revenge. Now, as the Judge of Anubis, he begins to attract some attention. (Shonen-Ai, DC-comic X-over)
1. Shots in the Dark From Empty Guns

I Don't Believe in Myself

I don't own Yugioh, Justice League, Teen Titans, Static Shock, or Young Justice. Or anything else you see.

Author: Dimitri Aidan, with periodic aid from my fellow comic geek Aloysha, my fellow anime geek Shin, and Rochelle, who has this strange ability to construct entire universes in her head.

Dedications: Mechante Fille, for this is for you. Lookie, super-rich, super-hero, and super-arrogant! I think Seto wins this battle… Unless Wally hits the lotto.

Rating: R. This just starts out bad…

Pairings: …hah. I have no fucking clue. Boys kissing boys and probably girls kissing girls. See whenever I try to write het my account is frozen. Funny thing that.

Warnings: Language, Violence, Homosexual content (Slash/Yaoi), general nuttiness, AU of the end of YGO.

Notes: I'm not insane. Exactly. But c'mon! Like Seto doesn't have all the makings of the classic anti-hero.

Summery: Kaiba's never been the good guy but when someone tries to take the one thing that matters he decides to fight. He catches the eye of the Justice League who aren't sure if they should help him or destroy him.

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Prelude

Shots in the Dark From Empty Guns

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Seto Kaiba was your average eighteen-year-old multi-billionaire. …Well, except for the fact both of his parents were dead. And that his adoptive father had mysteriously taken a dive out of a window. And that he had to take care of his younger brother.

Oh, and associated with ancient spirits on an almost daily basis. If one ignored all of that he was pretty average.

Seto was pretty used to deaths threats and assassination attempts and kidnapping attempts and silly things of that nature. He had made a lot of enemy in his eighteen short years, mostly because of the last name he bore. If he'd grown up in the care of his parents he wouldn't be half as hated as he was, even if he retained his less than inspiring personality. His adoptive father had destroyed people, families, and even the occasional city to claw his way to the top.

And now all of that rested on Seto's shoulders. He'd like to say he bore this weight fairly well, never faltering or letting it affect him. He still worked day in and day out, trying to assure the best possible future for his brother.

It was sickeningly cliché but his brother was the only reason he did…anything. He didn't want Mokuba to have to work everyday or to sacrifice his childhood. Seto was more than willing to do all of that stuff for him. Kaiba Corp was nothing, the money was nothing, the servants and the mansion and even all of the technology was nothing.

Mokuba was the only thing that really mattered to him. He would kill for his brother, would take on creepy bunny-worshipping whack jobs, risk losing his soul, and duel on top of planes if for no other reason than to make sure Mokuba had everything he could ever want at his finger tips.

The irony of the fact that Mokuba asked for almost nothing wasn't lost on Seto.

He went out everyday and put himself in the public eye, despite all of those who wanted to destroy him in some twisted form of vengeance (ruin the son to pay back the father) he did it for his brother. Death was nothing so long as his brother was happy.

So yeah.

Cliché. Melodramatic. Over the top even. But Mokuba was all that mattered to him. He was all that Seto really had, the one thing nothing could take from him…the one thing he could never risk losing. To lose Mokuba was to lose everything.

It all became pointless.

So, knowing all this, it was easy to understand why Seto Kaiba, when standing over the bleeding body of his brother, would lose it just a little bit.

It had all happened in an instant. One moment he'd been watching Mokuba get out of the limo to go to school and the next minute a shot, clear and heart shattering, rang out. His brother fell and red seeped out obscenely, painting the sidewalk and rushing out so fast.

He didn't remember leaving the limo or the bodyguards rushing into the building across the street to take down the gunman. He felt the warmth of blood on his hands, seeping through the knees of his school uniform acutely and wondered why nothing was…happening. His brother was breathing raggedly, red pooling at his lips and Seto touched his cheek, smearing red and wishing that he hadn't.

He heard the gunman in the distance; voice high pitched and stretched too thin, screaming about he would be the one to destroy Seto Kaiba and how he deserved this. How he deserved to pay. How he had to be alone and wanting, searching, like he was alone and would always be alone because of him.

Seto blinked.

Alone. He wanted him to be…alone. Wanted to take what he had from him. Without Mokuba…it was all so pointless. His entire life was pointless.

He couldn't allow that. It couldn't mean nothing.

He wouldn't let it.

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End Prelude

Chapter One: The fate of Mokuba, the truth behind the gunman, and Seto's decline into something resembling insanity. (It's all tragically Batman-esq…but it worked.) Written whenever I decide on a cool hero name for Seto. Suggestions are nice.


	2. Something's Bound to Go Wrong

I Don't Believe In Myself

Notes: So I got some suggestions and I picked out a few that I really like so far: Oni (Brother; Evil spirits that claim evil souls upon/shortly after death) and Fantomu (Phantom) (Thanks to Mechante Fille and Chris. Greatly appreciated.) And, all on my lonesome, Kuro Bengonin (Dark Defender) and Kouhei (Justice).

Opinions would still be nice.

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Chapter Uno

Something's Bound to Go Wrong

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Seto sighed and sat down, folding his hands in his lap. He looked as carefully put together as he ever did; hair in place, suit pressed, and shoes glinting in the florescent lighting. His lips were pulled into an ever-present frown and his eyes seemed to be staring past what was actually there.

"So, little brother, here I am again. I doubt you're surprised; I'm here everyday. I think I spend more time with you now than I did before all of this happened." He smiled wryly, breaking form for a moment. "I should tell you what's going on with the trail. He whined and cried and moaned, like I expected when his lawyer announced he'd be pleading insanity. It seems our-oh-so-loving father was his wife's boss and, when she was diagnosed with cancer he fired her and yanked all health benefits. She and the child she was carrying died. His lawyer claims he didn't realize he was attacking me, or else, but saw me as the man who'd let his wife die and you as the child I didn't deserve."

He paused for a moment, head bowed. Then he let out a breath. "I don't know if it's true or not but it doesn't matter. If his problem was with me, or him, he should have aimed for me, not for you. You were innocent in all of this. I want…I want him to die for this. He shouldn't be allowed to exist anymore. I know you'd hate for me to be like this Mokuba but I need for him to pay for this. Not just jail for however long they decide to put him away, that's not enough for this.

"He should suffer."

For a long moment silence was all there was, seeping into Seto's weary body. He was running on empty and had been running that way for…weeks now. Everyday it got just a little bit harder to open his eyes and face the world, with its faux sympathy masking that most people thought he kind of deserved this fate for what was he except the cold hearted CEO.

Maybe, he heard people whispering, maybe this would show him a thing or two about life beyond his company. Maybe this would be that wake up call he so desperately needed. Maybe things in his life would change now. Maybe he'd see the 'light'.

He hated such people with a passion he rarely felt for anything. It was true he'd floated through life almost distantly; with no real connection to anything because connections only ended in heartbreak and he refused to suffer any more pain.

Except, of course, with Mokuba. He'd been his light, his reason, his heart…the only thing that separated him from the cold steel exterior he projected for people. Maybe he couldn't feel anything on his own and maybe he had cut himself off from the world in some desperately pathetic attempt to shield himself from it, but he had never been…empty.

There was also something, this feeling that he got when Mokuba smiled or was rooting for him when no one else was. The knowledge that he always, always, had that one person in his corner eliminated the need for anything else.

He'd never realized how utterly dependent he was upon his brother until he didn't have him anymore. Now, when the younger teen was beyond his reach, he knew that he couldn't function without him. He was going to crash soon, crash and be dashed across the horrifically jagged rocks of his life. There was just no way around it.

He didn't even know what to do with himself anymore.

He was just so empty inside.

He couldn't stand it.

He lifted his gaze again, frowning at the perversely shining sun, laying golden rays through the window and onto the eternally still body of his brother. Mokuba wasn't waking up. He'd known that months ago but he was still clinging to this…shell of what his brother had once been.

He'd called on the best doctors in the world, considered one 'dangerous new technique' after another and would have poured the entire Kaiba fortune into bringing his brother back if he could.

Only, of course, he couldn't. He'd lost too much blood, his lungs had been full of it and he hadn't been taken in any air; his brain had been suffocated and now…now there was only enough in there to perform the most basic of bodily functions.

His mind was gone.

Even if he woke up, somehow, he wouldn't be Mokuba. He'd be…something else. Little more than a vegetable if he understood everything correctly, which of course he did, and he didn't think he could wish such a fate on his little brother.

Not that he'd be his little brother. Mokuba wouldn't be Mokuba without that strangely brilliant mind that would, one day, put even him to shame or that imaginative and mischievous nature… He'd be a pale comparison, a puppet at the best of times.

And yet he couldn't let him go. He couldn't sign the papers or give the say so to allow his brother to pass on. He was afraid.

Seto Kaiba was afraid. Deathly afraid.

He knew his brother was gone, knew he'd never be coming back but…he was just too afraid to truly allow him to go. If he was a better before, a less selfish man, if he loved his brother half as much as he professed to he could do the right thing and do what had to be done.

He couldn't.

He just…couldn't.

He could only hope Mokuba could forgive him for this, because he doubted he'd ever be able to forgive himself.

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Yugi sat next to Yami on the sofa and watched the TV while gnawing on his bottom lip. The trial was all anyone talked about these days in Domino because it touched them all, some more deeply than others. They, of course, knew Kaiba personally, had dueled him more than once and used his aid to save the world. They knew Mokuba and had thought of him as a younger brother.

But other people, who'd never really met them, watched the trial with the perverse sort of interest all members of the human race were stricken with.

Today was the day of the verdict. No matter what happened Yami had to confess he wouldn't be satisfied. Mokuba was, according to Seto, never going to be okay again. Not even prayers to his father, Ra, seemed to be able to do anything for the younger boy. And this man, this supposed lunatic, was only facing a number of 'petty' crimes.

Mokuba wasn't dead so murder couldn't be added to the charges. At least that's what Yugi said. Yami couldn't see why, if dozens of people had seen the man do it, they couldn't just behead him on the spot and forgo this pointless trial.

Yugi said that man was crazy and that crazy people couldn't go to prison. Yami agreed he was crazy, he must have been to take the life Seto's brother, but he didn't see what that was a defense. And he didn't see the point in prison either.

So Yami wouldn't be satisfied and he knew Seto would never be. The CEO worried him slightly, with his eerie sort of calmness no matter the situation. Even know he went to work everyday and continued to just…do what it was he'd always done, as if nothing had changed. Other than visiting Mokuba for a few hours everyday his schedule was the same.

What did Yami know about his schedule?

Enough. He liked to be aware of those he cared about at all times and the Kaiba brothers had certainly fallen under than hidden, though in very different ways.

The cameras weren't allowed into the courtroom but their were reporters from every local station, some not so local stations, and at least one fro every able country in the world posted outside, awaiting some kind of news about what went on inside.

Yami knew before they did.

He felt it, a ripple in the Shadow Realm (which he was always connected to by the very nature of what he was) and a spike of burning hot rage that laced through the darkness. But it was more than that, it was like a wave of acid crashed into his body and tightened around his heart and twisted.

He gasped, hand going to his chest. He felt Yugi's alarm but dismissed it in favor of gathering control of himself once again. Yugi's arm gripped his shoulder but he still wasn't paying him any mind because he was…seeing something beyond the TV and the room.

_He stood before the man, who had backpedaled himself into a corner and was staring up with wide watery brown eye. You could almost see the man's life replaying in his wide eyes, every sin or mistake he'd ever made revisiting him in that moment._

_He was dressed in black from head to toe and a trench coat flowed behind him. He made no sound as he walked across the dirty and littered floor and all there was in that room was the harsh breathing of his captive. _

_"Don't hurt me! Please, I-"His trailed off in a squeak that echoed off of the walls as a sword emerged and rested at the curve of his throat, pushing down hard enough to cause a thin line of blood to well beneath the tip. _

_"The Scales of Anubis deem you unworthy." The voice was surprising soft, with no lingering echo or sound to indicate he had even spoken. The man drew back, sword glinting with an unnatural silver light and showing delicately carved hieroglyphs. _

_There was a shriek and then a gurgle as a long arcing stream of blood flew, staining the sword for a moment. Then the blood seemed to flow into the metal, becoming a part of it._

Yami gasped as if he was coming up for air after being trapped under water. Yugi's grip on his arm had gotten harder, small blunt fingertips digging into his flesh.

"Yami! Yami, please-"

"I'm fine Yugi." Yami murmured, pulling his light into his lap, needing the contact suddenly. "It was just…a message."

Yugi stared at him, violet eyes wide and panicked. "A message? I thought you were having some kind of seizure or something."

"My father has never been…subtle." He said delicately. Really Ra preferred to go for the painful but memorable when it came to making his wishes known. Still, he could understand to a certain degree, this seemed like a fairly important message.

"What'd he say?"

"To stay out of the affairs of other Gods and Demi-gods." He smiled wryly as the image of the sword flashed through his mind again. "Anubis has chosen his judge and executioner in one of his reborn children and I am…not to be involved."

Yugi blinked slowly. "Um. Okay. Well. You missed the verdict; they're going to send him to a mental institution until he's sane again. Then he gets let go."

Yami nodded. He was sure this man would find freedom highly unappealing, for however long is actually lasted.

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So. I decided to tie Seto's abilities into the Egyptian theme of the show. We'll see the JL elements soon enough, so don't worry.

Lucid: Thanks for the suggestion. I've decided to go more with 'justice/judgment' theme for Seto, since it's probably the press who'll be naming him, as opposed to himself. He pretty much doesn't care at his point.

Mechante: I suppose the odds of winning the lottery compared to being hit by lightening are pretty good. I'll consider it. No cape, of course, but he gets a trench coat. It's Seto after all. And I'm sorry about Mokuba! Sadly I don't think he'll ever get better, cause how cliché would that be? And, of course, if he wakes up Seto might reconsider the vengeance thing.


	3. The Song That No One Sings

I Don't Believe In Myself

Notes: The people have spoken! Kouhei it is. I think Justice suits Seto well. Anywho, if this gets weird towards the middle/end I haven't slept since Tuesday and will probably be sleeping through Sunday and Monday so…bare with me.

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Chapter Two

The Song that No One Sings

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The shot rang out, a sharp crack that seemed to slice through reality. He saw every small movement as if in slow motion. Mokuba's body jerking backward and the smile falling slack. His body felling back while his hair went forward, fanning across his face, limp like a rag doll. No attempt was made to catch himself before his hit the ground.

He was like a puppet with the strings cut. He hit was a dull thud and a strangled cough, a wet gurgling noise as he tried to force blood past his lip and out of his lungs.

The blood seeped out, staining the world until everything was red. His hands were red, drenched in the blood of his brother, and his clothes were ruined and someone was telling him that if he washed his hands it would go away.

It would never go away.

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"Mr. Kaiba." A soft voice called him, coaxing him back towards the land of the waking. He opened his eyes then blinked against the harsh florescent light glaring down at him almost accusingly. Seto wasn't one to wake up slowly and he knew instantly what was going on.

The bastard was getting off. Well, he'd spend some time in a hospital for the criminally insane but then he'd be getting out. Seto figured they'd keep him a few months, give him some drugs for the voices he claimed were in his head, and then let his ass out as if nothing had ever happened.

Meanwhile his brother would consider to lie, a hollowed out body, in a bed in a hospital just barely living. Seto wanted to scream and rage and cry and laugh at the sickness of it all but could only bring himself to be mildly miffed that he'd passed out when the verdict had been read. Now he'd have to content with people pretending to worry about his psychical well being on top of everything else and Seto just…wasn't in the mood for any of that.

He just wanted to sleep it all away.

He pushed himself up, waving away the concerned young woman standing to his left who'd undoubtedly been the one to wake him up. It took a moment to realize he was on a stretcher in the back of what must have been an ambulance. Thankfully it was open and they weren't moving.

He rose to his legs, shaking for only a moment before steadying himself and making to walk out. The woman gasped and grabbed his arm.

"Mr. Kaiba, you can't go! You fainted in the court room and you seem dehydrated and we need to get you to the hospital right away so a doctor can see you."

He wrenched his arm away and fixed a glare on her. It must have been pretty bad because she put a hand to her chest and stumbled back, blinking dumbly. He hopped out, ignoring the bewildered EMT on the outside who had apparently been about to close the doors. They were outside of the courthouse and it seemed the reporters had finally vanished.

Thankfully.

He paid no head to the protests behind him and made his way towards the underground garage where he had parked his car. Still blessedly devoid of people. In fact it was so empty that it bordered on movie cliché. Seto couldn't help but feel that any moment someone was going to jump out and try to mug him or something stupid like that.

He found he didn't care much, as long as they were kind enough to kill him before they left. He winced again, knowing his brother would disprove of the morbid turn his thoughts were taking but he found he couldn't even bother to stop himself anymore.

They had all but let him go because he had some really endearing sob story to tell, of being fucked by the big bad CEO and his giant corporation and losing his picture perfect family and that made it okay to destroy someone else's family.

His shoes echoed in the garage and the only sound besides that was of his own breathing.

How could they do that? Did they have no sense of justice, of what was right? What his adoptive father may have done to that man didn't justify taking his brother's life, and letting him go didn't give Mokuba justice, it didn't set things 'even'.

He wondered what would happen if he killed the man who had destroyed his brother. Would they let him go because he had a pretty sob story about losing his family and having his reason for existing ripped from his fingertips?

Would that make it okay to them? Would that balance it all out?

He found his car but didn't get in. Instead he slumped against it and allowed himself to sink to the ground, weariness finally setting in. His limbs felt like led, his body screamed for rest and his mind screamed for peace but it all seemed distant and unimportant.

He didn't realize he was crying until he noticed the sleeve of his suit had a few dark spots on it. He touched his face, feeling the wetness, and smiled wryly. He supposed this was the finally breakdown, the cracking.

It was over and there was nothing he could do now except…accept his fate and wait for death to finally get around to claiming him. There was nothing left for him except the evening news and an article in the newspaper and soon event he reporters would grow tired and move on with their lives, leaving him to rot in peace.

He hoped as much anyway.

He pulled his knees up to his body and bowed his head, making himself as small as possible. He couldn't help but be reminded of his youth and laying in Mokuba's bed during storms, his shivering brother curled up as tightly as possible against his body and him…he was the strong older brother who would protect Mokuba from anything.

Only he hadn't. Hadn't even come close to protecting him and had just stood, dumb, as his brother's life spilled out over the ground and his hands. It had felt like forever before he had washed his hands clean of his brother's blood but even now…was it really gone?

How could it just be…gone? There had been so much of it. Where could it have all gone, really?

"You look pathetic." A deep and slightly raspy voice said tauntingly. "The Great Seto Kaiba reduced to crying on the floor of a parking lot."

Seto wiped at his eyes, angrier with himself then whoever had caught him in this moment of weakness. He pushed himself up, ignoring the screaming pain in his body, and turned to face the person who'd spoken to him, more than prepared to show them that even when the world was crumbling he was not one to be mocked.

Only when his eyes fell onto the man he forgot what it was he was going to say. The man was tall and lean, dressed in a black suit that looked even more expensive than the ones Seto owned. He was holding a briefcase in one hand and the other was in the pocket of his jacket.

However it wasn't any of that that gave Seto pause. It was the face. Or, more accurately, whom this man looked like. Which was to say Seto himself.

Not completely like Seto of course. His skin was a very deep caramel color, he had the beginning of wrinkles around his eyes, and his hair was a rust color. But the sharp features, mocking smirk, and glittering blue eyes were all things Kaiba was used to seeing in the mirror.

He blinked. What the hell was going on?

"You look good Seth, crying aside. Your mother would have been proud."

"What did you call…my mother? You knew her?"

The man shook his head. "Not the woman you know as your mother in this life no, I never had the pleasure. But in your past life, in Egypt, the woman who bore you was one of my priestess. Sister to the pharaoh and probably the most beautiful woman I had the pleasure of lying eyes upon."

Seto groaned and put a hand to his head. Part of him wanted to tell the man to shove it up his ass and rotate, because he wasn't interested in that past life crap at the moment. But, in the more logical but less scientific part of him, he knew he couldn't do that no matter how annoyed his was at the moment. He'd pretty much gotten over the whole 'he was never an priest in ancient Egypt' thing when he'd walked into Yugi's game shop one day and found three shadow wielding spirits standing inside, now with bodies of their own and more than willing to 'convince' him.

He had also come to terms with the fact that when someone called him 'Seth' he couldn't very well walk away and pretend it happened.

"What do you want?"

"To make you an offer." The man smiled but it was far from a pleasant smile. It sent shivers up Seto's smile. "I don't suppose you remember who I am? That's fine; I'm far from offended. I am Anubis, Ruler of the Underworld. I protect souls who have passed on and ensure they get where they are going. To you, however, I was father."

Seto blinked. "Are you trying to tell me you're Anubis, one of the Egyptian gods?" The man nodded and Seto groaned, earlier decision to stay and hear this guy out gone. He turned, reaching into his pocket to get his keys. He knew Yami claimed that Ra was his father, literally, but that was just farther than Seto was willing to believe, no matter how many monsters were paraded in front of him.

He grabbed his keys then looked up, intending to unlock the door.

Only his car was gone. In fact the entire garage was gone. He was standing in the middle of the desert with the impossibly hot sun beating down on him and trying to bake him inside of his suit. He gasped, both from surprise and the sudden heat, before realizing the man was suddenly in front of him and smiling thinly.

He no longer wore the suit but instead what one would associate with ancient Egypt, and looking very regal as well.

"You aren't the first person I've seen use magic."

The man sighed dramatically. "Fine Boy. You've always been such a skeptic, why should I be surprised? Forget it, don't believe me, it hardly matters. I'm here to offer you what you want more than anything."

"A vacation?" Seto asked, not able to hold back the quip.

"Revenge." The world seemed to come at a halt and the word seemed to slice through to the very core of his being and he could only stare.

Revenge.

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Mechante: You hit the nail right on the head with that one. How non-involved does Yami plan to be…after all, he isn't going to let Seto go around beheading people, right? I mean, Yugi probably wouldn't approve. Not that Yugi would know…

NJ: I'm sure we all agree with Yami. Ahh, how we long for the days of Egypt. In this case anyway. And you're right; being a vegetable is worse…that's why I choose that. If Mokuba was dead maybe, possibly, Seto could move on but with him like this…it's a constant 'living' reminder.

Tal: I'm glad you like, and I'll try to update…regularly.


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